Alternative Methods of Studying
by DaiP
Summary: AU Kel/Joren - Kel just wants to be left alone to study for the upcoming test, but having Joren as lab partner can be quite cumberous to the task at hand. Especially when he insists on veering from the textbook...Warning: FLUFF ahead, asthmatics beware.


For Maggie and her love for non-canon pairings.

* * *

She could still feel his eyes on her even as she read the same sentence for probably the twentieth time.

_Interneuron cell bodies are located in the central nervous system...located in the central nervous system where they..where they..._

_Interneuron cell bodies are located..._

Kel shut the textbook with a thud and thought enough was enough, she couldn't continue to study for her neurology exam if he kept this up, the insufferable ass.

"Finally decided you couldn't resist me by hiding behind that brick of a book, have we?" The blonde boy sitting beside her under the lemon tree drawled.

A gentle autumn breeze lifted a few tendrils of her chocolate coloured hair and Kel shivered slightly. Not because of the increasing coolness of the weather, but as a reflex to Joren's voice that never failed to raise frissons of sensation across her skin.

It was irrational, really, how a few words delivered in his lazy tone could unsettle her to such a degree. But then, that was what happened when hormones decided to come out and play.

It was just a crush, she told herself. An adolescent infatuation driven by chemicals and curiosity and, and...socially determined standards of aesthetic appeal! Yeah, he definitely had a lot of _that_.

Kel turned her head to examine the boy who was sitting closer to her than she remembered when they first settled under the tree.

Long limbs folded lazily but gracefully as he leaned back against the tree, Joren reminded her of Faithful, the stray cat Kel had taken in some years ago that somehow managed to appear scruffy yet regal at the same time. As usual, the top two buttons of his shirt were undone, the school tie was scrunched and creased after been pulled loose when school ended a few hours earlier. Kel traced the collar of his shirt with her eyes, itching with the urge to run her hands through the silky tresses that were just long enough to reach the collar and violate the school dress code.

Icy blue eyes met hers and Kel blushed furiously at been caught staring.

"See something you like?" Joren waggled his eyebrows comically and Kel couldn't help but laugh at his antics.

"Ah, I see the lady is not immune to my roguish charms." Joren leaned forward and played with a strand of her hair, which only drew Kel's attention to his long, tapered fingers that belonged on piano keys and violin strings.

"You should be studying for the neurology exam." Kel managed to say , with a tongue that felt too big in her mouth.

"I am." Joren tucked the strand of hair behind her ear and slid the hand to the back of Kel's head. Holding her in place as he moved closer and closer.

"I'm studying the effects of endorphin and its addictive properties."

_Endorphins?_

"That's not part of the test..." Kel took a silent, shuddering breath as Joren paused inches before her face. His fingers were brushing the suddenly sensitive skin on the back of her neck in a slow back-and-forth movement.

Joren angled his face so that there was only a breath of air between his mouth and hers. Kel recognised the familiar movement and closed her eyes in anticipation for the intimate contact to come. The miniscule voice in her mind protesting was drowned out faster than she could begin to listen to it.

Kel felt her lips quiver in frustrated excitement when Joren didn't swoop in immediately as he always did, and cursed her own weakness. It was always like this. Even before they'd wound up...together, if that was the word to describe what they had.

She would anticipate his next move - what he'd say, what he'd do - after Joren began to mature and act the cocky teenager more than his previous deliberately cruel bully. Kel had initally kept her distance. Not that she was the type to hold a grudge, after the tricks he'd played on her in junior high. But she found the new Joren, the one who didn't try to make her life miserable every chance he had, harder to cope with. She had him figured out before, the nasty boy only had to be ignored and tolerated, like an inconvenient rash. Unpleasant but never important enough to register so much as a bleep on her radar.

The new Joren had been harder to categorise. The taunting had turned to light hearted teasing, the caustic remarks became provocative banter. It seemed as though he was still trying to get a reaction out of her, but every time she turned her back in feigned disinterest, he would smile smugly, so different from his twisted sneers from before. As if he saw through her and knew that every time she turned away, her curiosity and interest had peaked.

When they'd been assigned as each other's lab partners at the beginning of the term, she had resolved to remain indifferent. But she'd found it impossible as she began to see that Joren was intelligent and hardworking when he wanted to be, and irresistibly charming when they were working together. It was probably this charm that proved to be her downfall when one after school study session had grew into...more, and one session had turned into many, in which biology was decidedly not the topic.

At least not the kind of biology that would be examinable.

She still remembered that first time, right before he'd claimed her lips that would short circuit her system, he wore a slightly troubled expression on his face, the same one etched on his handsome face now. Like he was trying understand something that continued to elude him.

She found him studying her intently through eyes clear as ice. Fighting a battle already lost, Kel gave in to the urge to raise a hand and run it across his brows to smooth away the faint wrinkle there.

Joren caught her hand in his free one and traced circular patterns on her palm with a finger in an unconscious movement.

"It's a part of my test."

Kel felt a little dazed. "Wh-what...?" And blanched at how breathless she sounded.

Joren smiled at her indulgently. Probably knew how much he affected her and gloried in it, the twit.

"The effect of endorphins? It's part of my test." He reiterated. "It's meant to be the chemical released by the brain when you're in love. I want to see if it really acts like a drug," he grazed his lips against her cheek, "keeps you coming back for more," the other cheek, "and more," corner of her chin.

Kel's eyes widened. "L-love...?" Gees, how much of a breathy Romance-novel-heroine could she sound like.

"Yeah, love." Joren said. His eyes serious as his voice sounded carefully casual.

Kel audibly swallowed, then felt her pulse skip as Joren's eyes followed the movement of her throat with an almost predatory gaze.

"Why are you talking about...love?"

Joren smiled. "You know, for someone so smart in the brain, you're pretty dumb in the head."

Kel's indignant protests barely left her lips before they were swallowed as Joren covered those last few centimetres and caught her breath and made it his own.

...

The textbook lay forgotten beside the tree they lay under. Its pages fluttering in the breeze that stirred gently.

"I have to say," Kel had her head pillowed on Joren chest as they both gazed up at the golden autumn sky, "I quite like your study methods."

Joren's chest vibrated with his chuckle, and Kel felt it in the tip of her toes.

"Glad you approve," he ran a hand through her hair. "It's the effects of the endorphin you're feeling right now."

"Then I wouldn't mind feeling like this for the rest of my life." Kel muttered lazily, feeling like a well satisfied Faithful after gorging himself on cream.

"You know what else makes your brain release a flood of endorphins?"

Kel tilted her head to look at Joren curiously. "What?"

He leaned forward and whispered the answer into her ears.

Later, Joren would always marvel at how fast a textbook could be picked up and slammed into one's face.


End file.
